SUPPLY CHAIN ARTICLES

  • ARW's ATMP Manufacturing Must-Reads (2024 NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS EDITION!)

    Day-in and day-out, I write, read, listen to, and watch as much content as I can about CGT and RNA therapy manufacturing, in particular, and/or other ATMP industry-related topics that you should at least be aware of in the manufacturing facility. Once a month, I compile the articles and industry updates I think are most worthy of your time into an unconventional newsletter format (below) and send them out via email.

  • The mRNA Supply Chain Revolution: Materials, Methods, And Momentum

    mRNA innovation now hinges as much on manufacturing materials as on molecular design, with novel inputs shaping performance, cost, and scalability. As these less-mature materials move rapidly into production, strategic material selection and supplier alignment are becoming critical to manufacturing resilience and long-term success.

  • A "Hot Take" on Personalized mRNA Medicines

    mRNA’s small-scale and cell-free production are often-touted benefits in the personalized medicines sphere. But as I reviewed my notes from the BioPhorum ATMP member event, I found myself coming face to face with a difficult truth.

  • Picasso, Pick-Up Lines, & Personalized Medicine: mRNA's Path Forward

    Overall, my presentation on what the mRNA industry can learn from the artist Picasso singled out a few specific areas from which I felt our industry could garner greater inspiration and operational prowess. But given how “collaborative” many of these sources of inspiration are, I’ve introduced each of my takeaways with a surprisingly relevant (albeit bad) art-themed pick-up line. After all, if there’s one sector that knows it takes more than one to “tango,” it’s the mRNA industry.

  • Multidisciplinary mRNA: What Can We Learn From Other CGTs?

    Overall, there are four high-level best practices/mindsets I proposed during a recent presentation that I believe will be crucial for us to bring some talented RNA therapeutic role models to the forefront. But there is one best practice that I think is worth emphasizing more than the others.

  • What Violin Making Can Teach Us About mRNA Therapeutic Quality

    Managing the mRNA supply chain and working in mRNA process development may not look anything like the work a luthier does to hew an instrument from an ancient spruce tree. But violin craftmanship actually serves as a fantastic metaphor for the challenging work the mRNA therapeutics space is tackling in sourcing and qualifying raw materials and optimizing the critical IVT reaction.

SUPPLY CHAIN VIDEOS

As CRISPR technology evolves beyond the original Cas9, gRNAs are transitioning from simple targeting tools into highly engineered, complex molecules. In this Advancing RNA Live segment, speakers April Sena, Max De Long, and Venkat Krishnamurthy discuss how the rise of diverse nucleases — including prime editors — is impacting gRNA synthesis and purity.

Large scale production of plasmid DNA requires an in-depth understanding and optimization of the entire downstream process. Explore a complete solution, from harvest to bulk filtration.

In this final segment of an Advancing RNA Live discussion, panelists April Sena, Tyler Goodwin, and Adi Nair share the most meaningful and manageable improvements the industry can be making today to upstream and downstream processes to drive down mRNA-LNP COGS.In this final segment of an Advancing RNA Live discussion, panelists April Sena, Tyler Goodwin, and Adi Nair share the most meaningful and manageable improvements the industry can be making today to upstream and downstream processes to drive down mRNA-LNP COGS.

While we can make lots of mRNA at a smaller scale, when it comes to scaling up to kg quantities of mRNA, our current batch processes leave a lot to be desired. Together, Stu Sundseth of Tune Therapeutics and Christian Dohmen of Ethris unpack the biggest barriers to scaling IVT to achieve the desired yield and quality of mRNA, offering their take on how the field is innovating to overcome these issues. 

ARTICLES, APP NOTES, CASE STUDIES, & WHITE PAPERS